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Dellen Millard, the convicted killer of Tim Bosma and heir to a multimillion-dollar aviation company, “has no money” to pay for his defence in two coming murder trials, court heard Friday.

“There is no money in my client’s hands to fund a defence,” said James Grout, the court-appointed lawyer who represented two of Millard’s companies now in receivership.

“The only assets of those two companies are a (vendor-take-back) mortgage of two — what I would call — shell companies,” Grout told Justice John McMahon.

The judge had ordered Millard’s civil lawyers to appear in court Friday to attempt to clear any hurdles preventing the accused from hiring lawyers for his looming trials.

Millard, who was convicted in June of first-degree murder along with Mark Smich in Bosma’s 2013 death and incineration, told court a week ago he cannot access his assets to retain lawyers.

Both Millard and Smich are now serving life sentences but are appealing their convictions.

The pair are charged with first-degree murder in the death of Toronto woman Laura Babcock and Millard alone is accused of first-degree murder in the death of his father, Wayne Millard, who was initially believed to have committed suicide.

Both trials have been delayed as Millard — who insisted he wanted to represent himself at the Babcock trial — remained without a lawyer.

Two weeks ago, the trial for Babcock was delayed from February 2017 to September 2017. The trial in Wayne Millard’s death is set for March 20, 2018.

The court also heard Millard will file two motions in the spring — the first aims to quash the direct indictment in the Babcock case. He also plans to file a severance motion because he wants to be tried separately from Smich in Babcock’s case.

Lawyer Ravin Pillay, who represented Millard in the Bosma trial, is Millard’s choice to handle those two motions, court heard.

Two civil proceedings have complicated matters, Millard said. His company, Millardair, which he inherited after his father died in 2012, is in receivership and the Bosma family has filed a $14-million lawsuit.

Court heard that the Bosma lawsuit won’t be proceeding until the coming murder trials are completed.

Millard cannot inherit his father’s estate because he is charged with his murder.